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I Forge Iron

I've been shut down


pnut

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I was notified that I had to clear out my forge etc from the woods behind the building I live in. Hopefully it's only temporary.

Someone from the county was down there and basically destroyed things. The county is getting rid of homeless camps and I think that's what they thought it was. They knocked over my rail anvil cut my tarps and poured out all of my charcoal. I wonder what they made of it all? I'm sure they didn't know what it was and probably drug lab was their first thought after homeless camp, but that's not an excuse to destroy it if they're not certain. I guess it's somewhat of a blessing I've been too lazy to rebuild my forge or it would have been tampered with and there's an insurance inspection Friday so there will be no forge for them to see.

I was under the impression it was private property. I have to speak with my landlord on Friday. I have a few backup plans if I can't use the woods. There's a patio out back where people grill out in the summer. If she'll let me stow my rail anvil behind the wall there I will make a grill jabod. Hopefully I'll

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I spoke briefly with the landlord on the phone and there's been a complaint about a homeless camp made by the church next door to us. It turns out I may have strayed onto their property but you would think that a church would want to help a homeless person if that's what they thought it was instead of ripping up their tarps and making their life more uncomfortable. I'm going to try to talk to the pastor and apologize for straying onto their property and try to ease their minds that it wasn't an encampment or still site or whatever they thought it was and hopefully I'll be able to set back up on my landlords property without getting any further complaints about it from them. 

Pnut

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Really sorry to hear about your issues Pnut. Hope you manage to find a solution.

 

I encountered a similar problem where I'd set up an outdoor weights gym in a secluded area near my work. Our (engineering) company owns a large site, most of which is abandoned, and much of which is large empty fields and greenery. My gym was in one of these abandoned zones in a small grassy area out of sight behind a building. I kept everything neat and tidy in as small an area as possible when out of use (probably a couple of metres square) against an old wall.

Unfortunately, the gardener decided that, rather than leave this tiny area of grass un-mowed, he would destroy my equipment. Not just move it- destroy it, to the point at which it was past economic repair. He smashed the items and threw them into a nearby ditch.

While I appreciate it was his job to mow the grass under the gear- nobody would have ever noticed, and a conversation following a notice on the noticeboard asking for the owner of the equipment would have been far more reasonable than destruction of property.... even if the property was in a public area. I'll never understand why someones first course of action would be to trash it.

.. fortunately my colleagues calmed me down and convinced me not to insert the broken equipment into a bodily cavity which would have required removal by a team of medical specialists.

 

Make sure you are calmer than I was when you speak to the pastor!

Best of luck and hope you get resolved.

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My first order of business when I speak with the pastor is to apologise for being too far over and crossing their property line. Then I'm going to try to explain what I was doing and that nothing nefarious was going on. I plan on being polite even if he chooses not to be. I've never spoken with him but my sister attends his church sometimes so I think he'll be nice about it and if he doesn't I will still be polite. I'm of the opinion that once you've lost your temper you've lost the discussion, debate, or argument. 

It's been there for about a year without any issues so if he objects to it even if it's on my landlords property in the woods I think she'll let me have it in the edge of the parking lot or patio where the grills are. We'll see. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. 

Pnut

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Shoot, my pastor let me set up under a shed roof back of our church and even took some lessons.  I had a postvise mounted there for several years.  Asked if I would demo at our annual "Country Fair and Dachshund Races".  Of course we also used to have "Cowboy Church" where you could attend on horseback...rural church, used to be surrounded by cotton fields and the stained glass windows all have cotton blossom and bolls borders.

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I should have given them a heads up but it didn't cross my mind. I thought I was on my landlords property. I hope after I let them know what I was doing they'll come around but since the county was called I doubt the landlord is going to let me set it back up in the woods anyway.  I'm hoping she'll let me set back up on the edge of the yard or parking lot. It would make transporting everything back and forth much easier. I'll find out Friday after I get off work and talk to her. She didn't sound mad at me but more irritated with the neighbor. 

Pnut

 

 

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Thanks, Mildred my landlord will be here today for an insurance inspection and to collect the rent so I'll have a talk with her about it. I have two different forge options for her to choose from and two different possible locations so hopefully we can agree on some combination of the four. I'll find out sometime today and post the verdict. I also had an offer from a friend to maybe put it on his mother's property but that's the least appealing option as I still haven't bought a vehicle so I'll have trouble getting there to do any smithing. 

Pnut

 

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Just talked to the landlord and didn't like what I heard. The neighbor on the other side of the property has complained repeatedly over the summer about people grilling out on the patio because there's a tree that he thinks is too close to the patio and he parks his truck near it. Did I mention this neighbor is the vice mayor of the town. The other side of the property is by the church that made the original complaint that made me take it all apart. She told me that the church has been trying to buy that section of property from her since she purchased the place so they can build a prayer garden so they will definitely complain if I'm blacksmithing there. The only tiny bit of good news is I was told to wait till it warms back up in the spring and I can try it again and hopefully she won't get any complaints. I'm pretty bummed out. 

Pnut

55 minutes ago, Glenn said:

Invite the pastor over and help him make a Fredrick's cross at a temporary forge set up.

I don't think it's about me or what I'm doing but about my landlord not selling them some property to build a garden and gazebo for their church. 

Pnut

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Thanks, that's a shame about the insurance. Did the underwriter deem the area too high risk? 

I have the gears turning. Where there's a will there's a way. I may be able to put a forge on my friends mother's property but I wouldn't be able to get there to use it so I might as well just leave everything where it is now behind the landlords tool shed. Hopefully the neighbors don't complain about that or she said I'd have to get rid of it. I'm about to take a stroll over to the park to see if there's grilling allowed. I just found a Webber grill the other day and I have a piece of plate about 6x6x3 I can use for a portable anvil, but I may 86 the grill idea and make the smallest MarkIII jabod I can due to the fact that I'll have to pack it over to the park by hand. I have an old lady laundry type cart but it's not going to hold a whole lot of weight. I will keep blacksmithing if at all possible. It's a bit cold out now so I don't know how much smithing I'm actually missing out on but I'll feel better when I get it squared away.

Pnut

 

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For the temporary fix switch to modeling clay and non- ferrous metals such as copper and brass.  Makes very nice roses, flowers, and etc. while you still keep the anvil working.

There was a fellow on the site that used his bicycle to carry his entire blacksmith shop from his home to a location where he could set things up, then back home at the end of the day.

May want to look into a storage building and get permission to work outside when you need to.  

There is a way, you just have to figure it out.  For instance, can you say Uber?

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2 hours ago, pnut said:

Did the underwriter deem the area too high risk? 

Yes, with the loss of entire towns to fire lately, Underwriters are cancelling policies by the hundreds and thousands, statewide. Let us move my situation to another thread though, please (Coming soon in Prayer List).

Robert Taylor 

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11 hours ago, Glenn said:

There is a way, you just have to figure it out.  For instance, can you say Uber?

I'm pretty resourceful. I'm sure the solution will present itself, I just have to think it over for a bit. I have a small plate 6x6x3 that I can use for a backpack anvil and a fairly small hammer, I just have to figure out the best way to hold the fire. I can't dig so I have to bring fill and a container. A MarkIII jabod as small as possible with split firebrick instead of full size clay bricks may be the best option. I also may be able to pay for a parking spot size space at the auto shops parking lot. He's got all kinds of junk cars and miscellaneous bric a brac in the lot and has a burn pile so fire isn't an issue. He's given me scrap before so maybe. 

I play with clay all the time. That's the little plate anvils main job besides being a cutting plate at the real forge. I'm motivated so I won't let a bump in the road stop me from doing what I enjoy.   You can't expect things to go your way all the time. I guess this is when I'll find out how much I really want to blacksmith, but I think the answer to that is apparent. Thanks for the support everyone.

I'll also have a chance to reread all of the blacksmithing books I can find. I just got a knife design book by Murray Carter a few days ago so that's something and I'm reading practical blacksmithing and the new edge of the anvil for about the fifth time.

Pnut

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3 hours ago, pnut said:

No problem, sorry about that. I'll be sure to look for it.

Hey Brother, I just do not want to distract from this VERY IMPORTANT thread.

3 hours ago, pnut said:

I'm motivated

Yes, and Inspiring. I appreciate your story beyond words. I am definitely staying tuned to this channel.

4 hours ago, CrazyGoatLady said:

Enough space to where every body minds their own biscuits.

I am with you on that one.

Robert Taylor

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Dear Pnut,

Just to throw something into the discussion and which you may want to pass on to your landlady and the pastor of the church but they may have some issues with the local land use and subdivision regulations which they should check out before any transaction, even if your landlady wants to sell the church a portion of her property.  I don't know the law in KY or your county but a lot of places have minimum lot sizes, e.g. 35 acres, and if a parcel being sold is less than that the seller has to go through a subdivision process.  Also, if carving off a portion makes the original property less than the minimum lot size there can be a problem.  Finally, the buyer (church) may have to do a "merger of title" to make their property one parcel rather than owning their current parcel plus the 2d newly acquired parcel.  They should check with the local land use department before getting very far down the road or they could get wrapped around the axle pretty tightly. 

But, unfortunately, that does not help your situation.  For many years my shop was either a rented garage or a storage unit.  This meant that it was pretty much a fair weather deal because I would have my bench and anvil in the shop and would open the door and slide the forge just outside the open door when I was working.  If you can find a place that has power for lights and power tools that may be an improvement from being under a tarp in the woods.

Lesson learned:  Make sure you know where the local property lines are and specifically, not "oh, my back lot line is down there in the draw."

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

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I've checked with the storage center in my neighborhood and unfortunately before they could get back to me with an answer a storage center had a large and very destructive fire in Cincinnati and of course they knew about it so they told me, "We wish you luck it sounds interesting,but no way no how can we let you light a forge on our property." It was one of the first places I checked when I decided to build a forge about a year ago. 

As far as the property line I think I was a casualty of a dispute between the landlord and the neighbors/town, and when she  told them she didn't want to sell the property when they asked again about ten days ago that's when the complaints began about my forge. I'm pretty sure if I can find a temporary place to work or simply wait two or three months I'll be able to have a forge on the landlords property that I can disassemble and store when I'm not using it. The silver lining is that she told me to give it a little time and she'll let me have a forge again so long as the neighbors don't complain, so it's really just a matter of time, but now that I can't just walk out to the forge and fire it up I want to do it even more. 

Pnut

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Start now and design a forge that can be set up, torn down, and moved easily.  4 stationary permeant poles in the ground that you can simply hook a green (not blue) tarp to and blend into the background.  Remove the tarp when not in use.

There is one fellow on the site that used a dog house to hide his anvil in his back yard.  Get creative with your needs and how to move things.  For instance make a depression in a anvil stump to hold your piece of steel anvil so the anvil can be removed and the stump turned on its side to look like just any ordinary log.

Look into a cart with bicycle wheels to move things.  Has a good amount of space, holds a nice amount of weight, and leaves no tracks or path in the yard. Stores easily against a building when not in use.

image.png 

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I have an upright cart to pack stuff around. I use it for going to the grocery store since my car died. 

The problem is nothing can be permanent. I have everything behind the shed. Anvil, prep table that I was going to use as a stand for the new forge , a little steel, and a few buckets of charcoal. It all fits under the table against the wall behind the shed out of sight. I don't want to mention it again for a while to her because if she feels like I'm causing an issue I'll have to move it all somewhere else and I don't have anywhere to take it. I don't want to keep bringing it up like a kid trying to get what they want by asking over and over,  So I think my best bet is to just let it go for a little while and then bring it up in a month or six weeks. 

I am planning on a MarkIII type jabod I can disassemble and store under the prep table with everything else and just pull the table away from the wall, put it together get to work and when I'm finished break it all down and put the table back and stow everything under it.

If I get the urge to do some forging I'm thinking of a box with two inches around the brick MarkIII type firepot to keep the weight down and the little plate anvil at the park. I have one advantage and that's that when I went to the fire department before building my first forge I had a two hour conversation with a LT. on the fire department who is a blacksmith so I'm going to go talk with him  about using the park and maybe get a business card or phone number from him for when I get the inevitable visit from the police asking what I'm doing I can say I talked with LT. Combs before starting. An ounce of prevention and all, and  knowing a name goes a long way in this little Mayberry type town. 

Pnut

I forgot to add that the church people helped themselves to both of the brand new fire extinguishers I had at my forge site when they went down to "investigate" so I'll have to buy another one before I can try to forge in the park. I don't want them to have any reason to tell me I can't do it there and not having a fire extinguisher would be a good reason to tell me I'm not allowed to use the park.

 

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